Heavyweight Boxing

[Taansend]

If, over the next year, this thread gets 50 responses, 47 of them will be from me

Anyway, here's the latest.

THE CHAMPIONS
The main man at Heavyweight is Tyson Fury, because he beat Wladimir Klitschko who had reigned for over ten years & unified the division. Fury was supposed to rematch Klitschko in the summer but the fight was postponed (Tyson ankle injury) & rescheduled for October 29th. Yesterday Tyson withdrew again, reportedly with mental problems. Some have said his behaviour over the last year has been Bi-polar or depressive. All I know is he's a loony. Best of luck to him in beating this.

Deontay Wilder is the WBC Champion. He won the belt from Bermane Stiverne who won the title that was vacated by Wlads brother Vitali. Wilder is a great bloke from Alabama. He's a crude but powerful fighter with a record of 37(36)-0 with Stiverne being the only one to go the distance. Unfortunately he tore a muscle last fight so is out for six months. He & Joshua is the fight American TV wants. Two polite, friendly black blokes with explosive fists.

Anthony Joshua is the IBF Champion. He won the belt from Charles Martin who won the vacant title which Fury gave up. Joshua is 17(17)-0 and fights again on November 26th.

Which brings us to the WBA - the fucking cunts of boxing. It's bad enough having four main belts at each of the 17 weights but the WBA have THREE Champions at each of those weights themselves. A Super Champion, A Regular Champion & an Interim Champion. They take a 3% cut from each fighters purse for each championship bout.

Tyson Fury is the WBA Super Champion.

Luis Ortiz of Cuba has won the WBA title & defended it although I'm not sure if he's still champ as he's tested positive for PEDs twice. He's very good though although 37 & a cheat. 25(22)-0.

Back in March Lucas Browne of Australia 24(21)-0 travelled to Chechnya to fight local boy (kind of) Ruslan Chagaev. Browne (37) won the fight by ko 10 but then failed a drug test even though he'd passed the same test 2 days before the fight. He took the WBA to court & won so now fights Fres Oquendo for the vacant WBA title (even though Tyson is a Champion). Oquendo lost to Chagaev too in a dodgy bout in the same town.

Back to Joshua. He is currently awaiting an opponent for his 26/11 fight. His No. 1 contender is Joseph Parker from New Zealand, He's 24 years old & 20(17)-0 & has beaten some decent fighters. But I'm not sure if he'll get the Joshua fight.

Eddie Hearn has also touted Joshua v Klitschko. But I doubt that will happen.

David Price's name keeps getting mentioned.

As has Hughie Fury, who is still only 21 years old.

David Haye is a favourite of the WBA but was meant to fight the very old Shannon Briggs but has faded from view recently. Haye, 36 in a few weeks, hasn't won a proper fight in 4 over years - against Chisora - & that's his only decent win in the last SIX & a half years.

So all in all, the division is a mess, although there are promising fights on the horizon.

[mkhammer]

Brilliant post Mr T,should be a Sports Writer pal.
You should keep us updated,with whats going on every so often.
Used to absolutely love the Boxing Game,but over the years fell out of love with it,
to many councils,organisations,whatever,to many iffy fights,like everything else these days just became a commercial enterprise for any tom,dick and harry to get involved in.

Think we got something like 70 so called World Champions at the moment,ridiculous.
There was even a couple of fights in the Olympics,which the results absolutely stunk.

Tyson is a bloody enigma,but you do have to give respect and kudos,for managing to beat Klitschko.

[Gonzo]

I still think that Haye has another title in him, he has knockout power and is the fastest of all those mentioned.

I think I've seen all of Joshuas fights and clearly he is expected to be the chosen one although there were some pretty impressive Super Heavyweights at the Olympics who will be pushing on in the next 4 years.

AS Taans said Fury is bonkers but he's also fat as fuck and I'm not sure that he carries the natural ability to get fit in a couple of months like all the others. I can't see him fighting again and his cousin looks average at best.

I've only seen two Wilder fights and I wasn't impressed but he interviews well. He boxes with a bit of fear and I believe the term might be 'gun-shy', I'm not sure how much fight he'll have when the going gets tough.

[eastcoastclaret]

Great post Taans,
Way too many 'champions' for me. it used to be so much easier knowing who was the actual champion. Even trying to unify them and become undisputed is nigh on impossible these days.
I can't see Fury ever replicating his win against Clitsco, the guy is clearly unfit and I can't see the rematch going ahead. I agree With Gonzo that Haye could well be in with a shout as none are faster than him and he can hit big time. Joshua's time will come but he is not ready yet.
The heavy division used to be exciting but now it seems a little dull compared to previous years/decades.
That's your 3 Taans looking forward to your 47 updates!

[Taansend]

Cheers Chaps,

As for too many champions, the WBA alone can have as many as 51 Add another 51 for the 3 other 'main' organisations & that's potentially over a 100.

TV & promoters are to blame.

There are still great fights happening but the average punter doesn't know who to look for as it's all so fragmented.

There should be ten weights with the lightest being under 50kg & the highest being over 100kg and then eight others in between.

Dunno about Wilder being gun shy, The Gonzo. He's actually a bit of a crude slugger who goes for the knockout. He did fight 'cute' against Stiverne but definitely wasn't gun shy.

There's some decent prospects coming through but until they step up hard to tell.

I still believe in Hughie though

[eastcoastclaret]

Who was the last undisputed heavyweight champ of the world Taans? And how long did he stand as such?

[deanox]

I concur good post Taans,
In my younger days I boxed for about ten years, had a good knock out punch. I loved boxing and tbh even though I fought at heavyweight always loved the middleweights, in particular Marvin Hagler, my all-time favorite.

unfortunately due to the many weights and titles I can't get too excited about the sport these days.

perhaps if they unified belts and reduced the weight divisions as you mentioned I could get excited again but until then.

On a side note the last fight I went to was Mark Kayler V Tony Sibson. The fighting outside the ring by the hammer fans and Leicester fans was as good as the fight in the ring

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[Noni]

Looks like Tyson Fury will ever fight again... Too unfit!! Personally not a huge fan of this guy!

[Taansend]

Who was the last undisputed heavyweight champ of the world Taans? And how long did he stand as such?

Lennox Lewis was the last undisputed Champion. Wlad Klitschko was the WBO Champion but got knocked out by Corrie Sanders of South Africa. Sanders never defended the title & Wlad fought Lamon Brewster for the vacant title after Lewis had retired (Brewster won by shocking KO, just as shocking as Wlads loss to Sanders).

Being Lineal Champion is more important. That's the Man who beat the Man who beat the Man etc etc. It can be traced back 124 years with only a few breaks in the chain.

That's who the real fans care about. Tyson Fury is the Lineal Champ..... for now.

[mkhammer]

I concur good post Taans,
In my younger days I boxed for about ten years, had a good knock out punch. I loved boxing and tbh even though I fought at heavyweight always loved the middleweights, in particular Marvin Hagler, my all-time favorite.

unfortunately due to the many weights and titles I can't get too excited about the sport these days.

perhaps if they unified belts and reduced the weight divisions as you mentioned I could get excited again but until then.

On a side note the last fight I went to was Mark Kayler V Tony Sibson. The fighting outside the ring by the hammer fans and Leicester fans was as good as the fight in the ring

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Remember Kaylor beating a guy called Roy Gumbs who was from Tottenham,lots of fisticuffs there as well,
really good fighter had a nice career,never reached the top table tho,British middleweight Title best I think,
recall he beat Errol Christie.